Broh’s Taskforce Nabs Over 35 ‘Drug Users, Dealers’

The “General” Mary T. Broh-led Presidential Taskforce has arrested over 35 suspected drug users and dealers. The taskforce also destroyed what residents of the Vamoma Community in Sinkor referred to as a “dangerous zone,” where the suspected drug addicts had lived.

During yesterday’s demolition exercise, Madam Broh told reporters that patriotic Liberians were tired of living with such “terrible situations, especially at the hands of suspected criminals, among them, some hardcore and jailbirds.”

She called on authorities of the Ministry of Health and Gender to formulate a social program that will rehabilitate youths that are engaged in the use of harmful substances.

By that, Madam Broh believes that those rehabilitated will make better contribution to the country as well as improving their lives.

“We need to think about social aid and the future of this country as a people,” Madam Broh told reporters.

Since President Sirleaf set up the Presidential Taskforce a month ago with the mandate to beautify Monrovia during the festive season, the team has launched a vigorous campaign to give Monrovia and its surroundings a facelift, but some Liberians have since criticized them.

Despite the criticisms, Madam Broh continued to work. She also stressed the need to investigate the supply source of the narcotics that are gradually damaging many young Liberians. She also called on the appropriate authorities, including the Liberia Drugs Enforcement Agency (LDEA), to continue their vigorous exercise to forward all suspected drug users to the law.

Broh said she is not only concerned about arresting the suspects, but rather to initiate curricula that reintegrate them into society and ensure that they are free from drugs.

“We need to really know where the drugs are coming from, but we need to collectively work with the LDEA to get rid of these people who continue to damage young people through the importation of these harmful substances into the country,” Madam Broh said.

She promised not to rest at the arrest of the over 35 suspected drug users, but to take them somewhere on any of the highways, “because we will not keep them in Monrovia.”

She said that Liberians deserve better environments, living conditions and a drug-free society, rather than what is currently being experienced, particularly in some communities around the country, where the use of illicit drugs have become rampant.

The exercise, she said, is not about her, but about Liberia, “and that should be the concern of every Liberian who wants to see that we are not only drug-free, but to achieve it through hard work.”

Commuters who were caught up in the slow traffic jam were overheard hailing Broh and her Taskforce for the demolition exercise and the subsequent arrest of the suspected criminals.

“This exercise is not just about the face-lift of Monrovia and its surroundings, but to also free the residents from the hands of criminals.

“The presence of the drug users in this community has affected many of the residents so much to the extent that, some of those victimized by the burglaries have left the community for different locations. But we can today safely say to Madam Broh and her team that this good work took some of them away,” a resident said.

Meanwhile, LDEA Chief of Operations, Johntor R. Wolo, who received the suspects, expressed gratitude to Madam Broh. He promised to properly investigate them to establish their cases before turning them over to the police, who would later arraign them before the court for prosecution.

“The LDEA will arrest and try to rehabilitate illicit drug users. But again, when we take the suspects to court, it is at the court their fates are determined,” Wolo said.

According to him, the LDEA has over the years been working to ensure that the country becomes a drug free society, but the process, he said, is challenging.

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